Next to Ellie (and, well, Emma), my favorite animal in God's entire creation is the polar bear. So when we saw them up close and personal today at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, I was completely and totally launched into my happy place. These creatures are amazingly beautiful and graceful, playful and fun. Not scary as a black bear may appear or unreal as the pink flamingo is. I felt almost guilty for hogging the viewing window as long as I did while children shoved around me waiting their turn. (My ticket cost more than theirs, right?????)

Dear Friends and Family,

My dad loves me the most, I think. He is the one who makes sure my bowls are filled. I have three bowls. One is filled with clean water. Usually. The second is filled with dry food. (uck) And the third is filled with wet food each morning by my favorite person, Dad. I am pretty certain that he isn't giving me the contaminated dog food. At any rate, I'm eating slowly and making sure that my tummy feels settled before venturing another bite. That dad. He's the best person in the world.

I just have to tell you how peaceful it is around here while my people are away. I have the whole house to myself. I sleep. I drink water. I watch the garbage truck on Mondays and the rural mail man each afternoon. I sleep. I sometimes pee on the carpets. The people don't like that. But what's a dog to do? It's not like they're clever enough to put in a doggy door for me. I also listen to Maggie next door. She barks a lot. I don't understand senseless barking. Barking for food, now that is a reasonable thing. But barking just because somebody walks by? Well, that's a waste of precious sleep time.

My people are happy to see me when they come home. I'm usually sleeping, so it's a few minutes before I slink down the stairs to greet them. They like it when I come downstairs. Benjy always hugs me. He's a funny little person. Mom? Well, she always opens the back door after rubbing me on the head. Then she tells me......no, she yells at me - "OUT!" It could be because I am rolling onto my back for a good tummy rub. I don't understand why she won't just rub my belly and let me be. Silly woman.

That Camden is an interesting folk. He hugs me. Hard. He's quite a hugger. I think he loves me. He tells me so. But he hugs hard. He goes about life like that though. So I shouldn't be surprised. Camden seems to dive full force into everything he does. He's a passionate person. Like me about sleeping. Yeah. I have a lot in common with that Camden.

Night night,
Emma

I feel like I'm coming down with a new version of the crud. I'm pretty sure it's not the bird flu. I'm thinking it's just spring fever that's got my nose itching and running and my throat itchy and coughing. Yuck.
So, as I lay on the couch trying to nap, Benjy surprises me with these. "I picked these for you, Mom. They're from the backyard. They're from ALL THE BACKYARD." Translation: I picked every daffodil I could find in the backyard for you, Mom, because I love you and I'm just so cute."
I love you, too, Benjy.

With highs in the 70s today, we headed over to my school after church to play. Curt packed up the camping chairs for us and the bikes for the boys. He also tossed in Camden's remote control car, his stilts, Benjy's light saber (which goes everywhere he goes these days) Emma and a bowl for her water. He even surprised the boys with a stop at McDonald's for drinks.

Once there, we threw our paper recycling in the bin there, scoring a double whammy in the do-gooder department since the bin collects a bit of extra money for the academy. Camden thrived on doing "challenges" against the clock from Curt: "Ride your bike all the way to the light pole and back." "Go down every single slide." "Go UP every single slide." When we got home he STILL wanted to do challenges. Nothing wore that child out.




Benjy rode his bike a bit, but his favorite activity was carrying logs half the size of him from a pile on a small hill and rolling them down the hill to splash into the creek below. He did this several times, proud as punch of his strongman abilities.


Here's my latest as yet unfinished piece of something. I downloaded the sheep from google searches and printed them up and collaged them to the canvas I painted a month ago. I think it still needs more barns or houses or something on the hills. What do you think??? It know it's missing something....



And here's my latest in the W collection:
I'm really into the sky/grassy hill and flowers theme. Once I learn how to do something, I usually never quit. :)

It's FRIDAY!!!!!
Just can't wait to sleep in tomorrow. I've done the powerpoint for church so I won't have that on my plate in the morning. I'll head to the craft fair at my school and hopefully get another great deal on Veggie Tales moves for the boys. They LOVE those things! And I think I'll spend some time CREATING. I've been running on empty in that department for a bit. I need to finish up a collage I started more than a month ago. And I really want to print some pictures and scrap them. More than anything, I'm searching for something else to do. Something with paint and canvas and paper and buttons. Yeah. That sounds about right. More tomorrow if it's been a creative day.

Under consideration tonight at Curves:
~ REAL Irish bread pudding. With REAL whiskey, I'm told.
~ fresh cantoloupe at Giant Eagle
~ low carbs or low fat
~ disco or Latin music
~ pizza or spaghetti
~ could a woman be president???
My 30 minutes were up. I grabbed a cup of water, gulped it down, and walked out on that one.

More "eye spy" today. Lots of it in the van on the way to Wal-Mart.
That place gives me the heebiejeebies. Did I ever tell you how I HATE Wal-Mart?
Camden and Benjy had allowance money to spend this morning, and it was burning holes in their pockets. While Curt did the grocery shopping, I took the boys to the toy section and we searched the shelves and crowded aisles for $5 and $3 items. We had to turn our backs on all things Star Wars, Legos, and the Mega Moon Sand kit. The 88-cent stuff was enticing for about only ten seconds. Then they wisely realized that these would become the Lost Toys that Mom would toss when they were not looking. In the end, Benjy settled for a Sally Porche 911 from the movie Cars. And Camden had decided to go to Target. (Twist my arm.) Then, wonder of wonders, as I was picking up glue sticks from the crayon aisle, Camden spied an American flag behind me. Two of those plus the mount for it like you see in classrooms cost him only four bucks. He sang, "Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah" and tossed them into the buggy. He plans to display one of the flags on his fort in the backyard. The other is a bonus. You may be wondering what he did with the remaining dollar. (He certainly didn't SAVE it!) Well, as we were checking out, I took the kids to the "Family Fun Center" - ie "Spend Your Change Here For Cheap And Impossible To Win Toys". There, Camden deposited his crisp one-dollar bill into the change machine, took his four quarters out, then spent two of them trying to catch a stuffed animal and one more trying to win a toy car. He lost both. But, hey, he still has a quarter to keep his pocket warm.

Great sounds

I haven't taken the time to shoot some pix this week, but I have stopped to notice a few sounds that make me happy:
~ birds chirping (even through the 5 inches of snow we're getting right NOW)
~ the gong of Law & Order reruns on USA network
~ NPR in the morning
~ Benjy and Camden singing along in the car to the Veggie Tales Sunday School tunes
~ OK, the Veggie Tales
~ Emma yawning
~ thunder
~ ocean waves
~ rain on a tin roof
~ coffee maker brewing
~ favorite hymn in church - In Christ Alone
~ Christmas tunes
~ trains in the night
~ crickets
~ silence

Eye Spy

Here's how a typical game with Benjy goes:
Mom - I spy with my little eye something red.
Benjy - Ummmmmmmm. A sign!
Mom - Nope
Benjy - Ummmmmmmmm. A car!
Mom - Nope, not that.
Benjy - Ummmmmmmm. A RED LIGHT!!!!
Mom - Yup, that's right. Your turn.
Benjy - I spy with my eye something Star Wars.
Mom - Darth Vader.
Benjy - Naaaaa.
Mom - Yoda.
Benjy - Naaaaaaa.
Mom - Obi Wan.
Benjy - Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Mom - Luke.
Benjy - YES! Good job, Mom!

Ah, take me back to Buckeye Country.
I never thought I'd hear myself say that!
We had such a blast in our old Ohio neighborhood last weekend. Good friends. Good game of Apples to Apples. Good pizza and Chick Sips. I got to see Stanya's new store - fabulous! I can't say how much fun it was to be back on the block. The boys jumped out of the van and disappeared for an hour, playing with Drew, Nate, Thomas. It was like we'd never moved away.

Kinda weird seeing our old house across the street without our car in the drive. No right to go sit on the front porch. No familiar yard art in the mulch. (But the little shed Curt bought to put the lawn mower in was still there.) We did hop from house to house a bit, visiting Wanda and PJ and their new baby and Alex. We saw Stan and Dave for a bit before they went out to celebrate her birthday. And we stayed with Jodee and Rob. (Muchas gracias, guys!)

Yes, it was a refreshing visit. One I can't wait to make again.

(I give up on attaching photos. It's not working tonight. But, Jodee, I have an adorable shot of Kalynn. sp??????)

Favorite quotes of late:
"God, and Jesus and Me made the WHOLE world." ~ Benjy
"I can see the whole world, Mom!" ~ Benjy
"God and Jesus and Me made our whole house." ~ Benjy
"You did not." ~ Camden

We're writing our own curriculum in school. Not an easy task, but I realized today how blessed we are as teachers to have the opportunity to write it ourselves and not have it dictated to us by people who don't know our children. I also realized how God has so completely guided our school this year. He's just so cool, God. Every single need we have has been met. Every obstacle overcome. Every prayer answered. Thanks be to God.

And, thanks to Anne for linking me up with her blog. Some amazing writing here. You inspire me, Girlchick! I can at least make it a goal to TRY to write more often. Maybe one day I can write just one post comparable to yours! Check it out here.

Not sure which this is - Angel Benjy or Benjy.
Lately, Angel Benjy has popped into our lives more and more. Today Benjy said he was on the roof of the van. "Boom Boom Boom," Benjy said. "He's stomping." "Swish," Benjy says. "He's jumping." "Chchchch, he's here!"

Good news for this hump day:
I don't have glaucoma, says the eye doc. I had a follow-up appt from a couple of weeks ago when my eye pressure was a bit elevated. So I had a series of tests today that showed everything to be A-OK. And the greatest thing of all - no dilation!!!!!!

I attended an awesome seminar on Monday and Tuesday on differentiating instruction in the classroom. With so many kids on different levels of instruction, it's hard to justify teaching them all in the same way. And we shouldn't be doing that anyhow. This workshop was led by a dynamic presenter - interesting, relavant, and fun. And the meals were excellent!

Camden brought his reading book home yesterday and read every single story in it. Wow. So awesome to hear him READ.

Our Wednesday night Food for Faith at church began the series Defending Your Faith. This is amazing. It's an honest-to-goodness method for defending Christianity to nonbelievers. Not an in-your-face belittling strategy, but a real way to engage people in discussing what they actually BELIEVE when they challenge our faith. After one night I know that I'd rather avoid all confrontations. But I also know that I can learn to handle opposition to my Christianity. I can defend it. And I owe it to Jesus to do just that.

Bad blogger.
Bad.
Bad.
Bad blogger.
Benjy has a new imaginary friend: Angel Benjy.
Angel Benjy plays Star Wars. He splashes in the tub with Benjy. He hangs out in the van when the rest of us have already made our way into the house, hung up our coats, and settled down with after-school snacks. Angle Benjy goes to time out. A lot. He allegedly makes messes in the real life Benjy's room. Angel Benjy is real life Benjy's new best friend.
"Where is Angel Benjy?" I ask.
"Ooooooooh... he's out in the snow," the real Benjy answers thoughtfully.
"Is he cold?"
"Yes. It's brrrrr cold."
"Does he want to come in?" I ask.
"No, not yet."
Angel Benjy. He's like Super Man around here.

I think I totally forgot to post about Camden's karate tournament a couple of weeks ago. He did fabulous! (of course)
He scored three medals - one for Black Belt Attitude, one for Listening (my son??????) and one for Powerful, Sharp Knifehand Strikes. Wooohooooooo! He was so proud. And so were we. Benjy, too. And Emma, as you see here, wearing Camden's three medals. Probably not her desire, but with some bling around her neck nonetheless. :)

Wow, what a sense of accomplishment. I have sorted, tossed, and organized toys in both the basement and the playroom. And it feels so good to walk into those rooms and survey my handiwork. Yesterday it was painting. Today it was cleaning. Who knows what tomorrow brings.



These pix are blurry, but in real life the layouts are not. I managed to accomplish some scrapbooking this week. Funny how when I'm sick I'm super uber motivated to create.

This the painting/collage I made yesterday between coughing fits.
It's inspired by Claudine Hellmuth. Heck, it's a total lift of one of her pieces. She is just so darn awesome. I am so happy with my first collage piece. It's hanging in my kitchen smiling at me. :)

Friday

What I LOVE about Fridays:

Remembering what happened on "The Office". LOVE this show.


I wear jeans every Friday. Blue. Black. I don't care what color. Eddie Bauer makes the best jeans. Buy 'em at the warehouse store, and you've got the BEST price.


silly. irreverent. not much to make sense of here, except the obvious. Love this. :)

January 12

Today is Camden's birthday. My baby is 7 years old. Feeling quite sentimental, I kneeled by his bed tonight when he was barely asleep. I told him what it was like at 9:30 p.m., seven years ago at that very moment. I told him how I had already sent Daddy home to sleep and rest for the both of us, that the nurse wheeled Baby Camden into my room in the nursery bassinet and that I very, very carefully picked him up by myself and settled into bed to snuggle with him. I explained how he was so beautiful, so tiny, so perfect. That I cried as I held him and planted kisses on his tiny nose. I named him my little Buttercup. I don't have any idea where that came from, but it seemed to fit at the time. He's more like a Venus Flytrap at times now, but usually a fun daisy or maybe even a tall sunflower opening wide to the sun. Yes, seven years ago today, he was smaller than my pillow. Smaller than a good bit of his own stuffed animals. And I was smitten in love with him.

As I hugged Camden tonight and told him the stories of his first day on earth, he smiled and hugged me. Then he stretched out his lean seven-year-old arm, reaching up toward the top bunk of his big boy bed. He exclaimed, "Look, Mom, if you do your hand like this," twisting it about in the dim glow of the nightlight, "you can make a longneck." That's a dinosaur. "Yes, Camden. That's a really cool longneck," I told him. Then I hugged him as he made more dinosaur shadow puppets, kissed him on the nose, and told him I loved him.

Goodnight, my little longneck.

Godwink.
That's my word for the year. Ali Edwards recently challenged her readers to find a word that they could live with for a year. I sat on this for a few days and finally hit on Godwinks. I was in Barnes and Noble this morning, and found this wonderful book about Godwinks, those coincidences that are really little answers from God. Like when you're looking for a scale for your classroom, as my friend Barb was. And you find one for a buck or so at the Goodwill. Or when you keep thinking about a special long, lost friend. And they call you that night out of the blue. Or when you think you're miserable in your job, and you meet one person who introduces you to their school, and you suddenly have the teaching job of your dreams. (Thanks, Sandy!) Godwinks. That's my word for the year.

I want to look for the Godwinks that happen in my life this year. And, God willing, I want to remember them here. If I'm really good, I'll even scrap them! Godwinks. Cool, huh?